A Selkie's Promise
by MarvelGeek
Summary: Bruce Banner...a silly name really, he honestly didn't know why Rebecca had picked it. But she had, so he agreed. Bruce Banner isn't who he says he is...or what he is.


The beach was almost totally silent, the only sound coming from the dark churning water as it slammed against the sharp rocks littering the coast. As a herd of seals arrived on the beach, their dark sleek bodies as they whipped through the waves were almost invisible. There was no contrast between their pelts and the dark sky and ocean that surrounded them. At least not until they got to the beach, that was where their dark seal pelts seemed to dissolve into their bodies. Leaving behind six grown human men and a young preteen boy, the boy's face was confused and the faces of the men were blank and emotionless.

The young boy began to speak in a throaty guttural-sounding language that the other men seemed to understand.

"Hyuuman Hhu~hng Huu-iikk!"

The boy screeched, tearing at his ears as if they caused him unbearable pain. One of the men walked over to him and rested a gentle hand on the distressed boy's shoulder. The child looked up at him with wide and warm, hazel colored eyes, the same color as his seal pelt as he buried his face in the man's stomach. A pair of small arms pulled the man even closer.

"Roah-nakh-nahnn...Dehffoo."

The grown man crooned in a rough, throaty voice as tried to calm the young child who clung to him as if he were his only lifeline. The child...Roah-nakh-nahnn, was whimpering as the man cradled the boy's chin in his palms.

"Ah~ee!"

The child cried pitifully, and the man felt yet another vicious stab to his heart. He didn't want to leave the boy..but they had too. The Selkie that had sired the boy was their leader, if they allowed the boy to come to harm...they could die themselves.

If a leader-blooded Selkie called for help, they couldn't refuse, they had to come. The child had already been scarred by their enemies, the Mer-folk, and once a Merman marks a target, they will finish the job. Therefore, they could not let the child return with them back to Aquanea..not until he was of age and could defend himself.

"Hngukk Huumuu."

The man whispered as he pulled away from the child, the boy made a small whining noise as he lunged forwards and grabbed at the man, but he was already walking away. Along with the rest of the Selkie men. The boy staggered to his feet and tried to follow them, but he kept tripping as his feet sunk into the sticky sand. He made a pitifully keening noise in the back of his throat, but it was ignored as the men's seal skins bled through their human skin and they took off back into the ocean, their home...

"Haanii!"

The boy screeched as he lay in the sand, sobbing loudly and screaming words of grief in the language of his homeland.

-TimeSkip-

The boy tried to kill himself many times over the next weeks, drowning, starving or dying of thirst. Nothing seemed to work and he sat on the beach, day after day, night after night, pining after the sea, after his home under the waves. Finally after weeks of not eating or drinking, he was weakened considerably and he knew that drowning would work this time...it had too. He couldn't keep living, not when he missed his home like this.

But when he tried to drag his weakened form into the sea, he felt hands yanking him back, dragging him back to the land. The child screeched, angrily and threw himself forwards, against the large and strong hands. But the hands held strong and fast.

"Hngukk Feen!"

He wailed but the strong hands spun him around and he blinked dazedly at the human male who held him. The human had dark curly locks, not unlike his own, and freckles dusting his cheeks and the bridge of the human's nose.

"Who are you, Child? Are you alright?"

The human asked worried and the boy quirks an eyebrow, did the human want him to answer in 'Human-tongue'?

"Go...away."

The boy rasped, his voice hoarse from disuse. The human shook his head vehemently and gently sat the Selkie boy down on the soft sticky sand.

"Sorry I cannot do that, little one. Do you have someone I can take you too? A family?"

The human asked, quietly but the Selkie boy just stared at him quizzically. He didn't understand what the human was trying to say. 'Family'? What was a 'Family'? A human thing?

"A family?"

The human looked at him like there was something wrong with him, as he reached over and rested a pale hand on the Selkie child's bare knee. The child did not meet the human's kind-looking eyes.

"A family...your mother, father? The people who love and care for thee."

The human whispered and his words sent another painfully edged dagger into his heart. Those who had loved him, had left him here to rot on land. Alone and helpless.

"I have nothing. Leave me. I must stay near the waves."

The Selkie child whispered softly, his voice lilting and small, shaking as he tried to pronounce the words that belong on a human tongue, not on that of a sea-born child. But the human would not take his answer as a final word, because he began slipping off his long white shirt and he wrapped it around the child, he looked up at the human in something akin to disdain and horror, instantly moving away as the human tried to lift him into his arms.

"You humans are all the same! Leave me be!"

The Selkie child shrieked, terrified and the human cocked an eyebrow at the statement. His next sentence made the child's heart freeze in horror.

"Us humans? What are you then, pray tell?"

The human asked and the Selkie boy whimpered, wrapping the shirt tighter around his body.

"We call ourselves Apupua Chaaishiihuur, you call us Selkies."

The boy whispered and the human's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Just when the Selkie thought he was going to leave, he was swept up and into the human's strong hairy arms. The child just gaped at the human's goofy smile.

"I'm not sure I introduced myself properly, I am called Master Rodney of the Banner house. And who might thee be, Master Selkie?"

This human...Rodney, was strange. Rodney wanted nothing from him, only what they called him. He didn't want to sell him or treat him like a procession, such an odd and peculiar creature.

"They call me Roah-nakh-nahnn."

He whispered but the human just looked confused as his mind tried to comprehend the strange name that belonged on the lips of the sea-born.

"May I call thee, Ronan?"

-TimeSkip-

Rodney adopted Ronan into his family, he treated him like nothing less than a younger brother. But Ronan, being a Selkie, did not age like humans. When Selkies reach a certain age they stop aging, but Selkie children age slowly, very slowly.

Ronan was only at the physical age of eleven when he clutched onto Rodney's hand as the old man died. He took care of Rodney's son, Samuel, the same way he took care of Rodney. But soon, Samuel grew into a man and Ronan was horrified as he watched him get older and older. Then just as he did with Rodney, he held Samuel's hand as he died.

Many generations of the Banner family passed right in front of Ronan's eyes, Robert Banner, Gregory Banner, Dominic Banner, Samuel Banner II, Ben Banner, and finally Rebecca Banner. Ronan changed his name many times over the years, and he always found a way to be a Banner. Rebecca called him her and David's son.

Rebecca was the one who changed his name to Bruce...Robert Bruce Banner.


End file.
